


Cupcakes and Other Gifts

by PanBoleyn



Series: Happy Birthday, Queliot! [2]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff and Smut, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 04:09:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21220328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanBoleyn/pseuds/PanBoleyn
Summary: For Eliot's 26th birthday, Quentin gets him cupcakes and Broadway songs.For his 29th, well... the cupcakes are still a thing, but Q also has a plan for a very nice wake-up call.He manages to make both times a surprise, too.





	Cupcakes and Other Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> So! It's a plot point in this story (er... as much as this has plot) that my Eliot's birthday is October 30, but in honor of today being apparently the preferred date, I'm posting today and honoring both options! :)
> 
> As ever, thanks and love to my RAO friends, who mostly didn't see anything from this till today, but still, <3.

One of the days Eliot never skips class is October 30. Normally, his birthday would be the perfect excuse to skip, of course - not that he needs one, when he feels like it - but since everyone thinks his birthday is Halloween, well. Besides, putting in the time the day before means he always takes off Halloween, and just like last year that gives him all the time he needs to get things together for the Halloween party. 

Side goal of pretending his birthday is one day later than it is - a perfect excuse to make the Halloween party the biggest of the year. Main goal, of course, is that it goes with the image, especially since he officially became a magician.

Margo knows, of course, but she goes along with the scheme as wholeheartedly as he does; to her, his birthday is Halloween because they say it is, and no one had better say differently. And so he isn’t expecting this year to be any different than last year. October 30 is just a normal day. 

There’s just one difference that Eliot failed to take into account. Namely, Quentin Coldwater. Eliot doesn’t know exactly why he told Quentin when his birthday actually is, but he had. Well, no, that’s a lie, he does know. 

_ “Seriously? Halloween? For a magician? That is just - too unfairly perfect, not cool.”  _

_ “Well, little Q… truth is, it’s the day before, but any excuse to kick a party up a notch. Trust me, you think the parties so far have been good? My Halloween bash blows every single thing out of the water. So you better be there.”  _

It had gotten a laugh out of his sleepy sad boy -  _ not  _ his, Eliot reminds himself every time, not with the way Q’s eyes track Alice Quinn - on the third night in a row he’d come across Quentin up late at night with insomnia. And that’s why Eliot had told him, because… Quentin likes it, he’s noticed, appreciates being tugged behind the curtain to see how things are done. And for Eliot, who likes showing off and likes being appreciated, this is a whole new kind of audience. Margo is partner-in-crime, always in on the behind the scenes, but Quentin - 

Quentin likes the backstage as much as the play, so to speak, and it’s kind of a heady feeling for Eliot. So he’d brought him in on one more thing. 

He’d also keyed Q into the wards on his bedroom, making him the only person besides Margo who could go in without Eliot letting them in. Which means, when Eliot comes back from his alchemy class late that afternoon to find a small bakery box and a thin wrapped present with a card on top, well. 

Only two people can get in, after all. 

He opens the card first, a little disappointed to find a generic Hallmark card inside the envelope until he flips it open. It’s one of the blank ones, and most of the white space inside is taken up with little ink sketches of - 

Eliot has to laugh, because did Quentin really decide to draw him as his favorite Broadway characters? Apparently he had, and that’s just adorable. As for the written message - 

_ I wouldn’t dream of telling your secret, but I thought you should get at least one thing on your actual birthday. (I promise, this isn’t me trying to justify skipping out on your party, I’ll be there as demanded.) So, happy birthday. _

_ \- Q _

“You’re not supposed to get more cute,” Eliot informs the card as if it were the person who sent it. “Really, it just isn’t fair.” 

Setting the card down, Eliot considers the bakery box and the gift, before deciding to start with the gift. Opening it, he finds a pair of CDs, and another note telling him that they have all the versions of his favorite Broadway shows’ soundtracks that Q could find. Burning CDs is a little outdated, of course, but here it’s less out of place. There are a few illicit Internet connections, but for the most part, the only electronics that work are appliances and CD or DVD players. Cable and radio don’t, but as long as all you want to do is play something off a disc (or even a cassete tape, or a vinyl record for that matter) you can do it. 

Eliot will have to give them a listen, of course, to see just how good a job Quentin did, but he’s charmed by the effort anyway. Especially since he’d only talked about his theater favorites a couple of times, and yet Quentin clearly remembered it well enough to make something of a theme out of it. He taps the card against the cases, thoughtful, and then sets both aside, flipping open the lid on the bakery box. 

… Right, Quentin definitely enlisted Margo at least a little, because Eliot  _ knows  _ he never told Quentin his favorite cake flavors were red velvet and funfetti. ( _ Especially _ not the funfetti, because there are some illusions he’s still keeping up around that boy.) Yet here he is, looking down into a box of six cupcakes, three of each of those flavors. He doesn’t recognize the bakery name on the box, it’s a place in Brooklyn apparently, but when Eliot has one of each over the course of the night and spells the others to stay fresh, well. 

He’s going to have to track it down, because they do work almost as good as his own, if he does say so himself. 

Also on the list of things he’s going to have to do is find out Quentin’s birthday, because a sweet little gesture like this deserves getting repaid in kind. 

  
  


<><><>

  
  


Eliot doesn’t have Quentin at hand for his next three birthdays, and mostly due to the same factors, doesn’t find out what Quentin’s is until after kingdoms and quests and Monsters. But he likes to think that when he did find out, he more than made the best of it. 

So, for the record, Eliot doesn’t think it’s that big of an ask to have his boyfriend with him for his birthday. Especially his boyfriend who was his husband in another life, and especially when they’d gotten back together on Quentin’s birthday. A surprisingly nice day for July, that had been, and Eliot can’t walk by that park now without smiling, but anyway. 

He can’t fault Quentin for wanting to help Julia, and luckily Julia also thinks a man should have his partner there for his birthday, so she promised to have Quentin back from her latest trip - to Seattle - by Eliot’s birthday… except she somehow got the Halloween cover story. So, the fact that Quentin won’t be here for Eliot’s actual birthday is kind of his own fault. And he’d never thought it would bother him. It never bothered him that Margo helps him sell the fakeout by delaying giving him any gifts or taking him out until the 31st, he appreciates her commitment to the game. But Quentin… 

_ I thought you should get at least one thing on your actual birthday. _

That had been so unexpectedly endearing, and Eliot had missed it, all right? Sure, his 27th birthday had been in Fillory, they’d never bothered charting their birthdays at the Mosaic, and he’d been possessed when he turned 28. He  _ thinks  _ he was even still Nigel to boot, in an entirely different Happy Place incarnation. All that is weirdly fuzzy, though he knows he did spend time as Nigel in a mind palace. 

Also, Nigel’s birthday was in January.

Anyway. So. Eliot might, maybe, possibly go to bed a little sulky on October 29th. He might even go to sleep with his laptop open to Quentin’s Audible account, playing one of those audiobooks Q became addicted to sometime during their mutual recoveries. 

But in the morning, things have very suddenly improved. 

  
  


<><><>

  
  


“Look, we both know what you really want is time alone with Julia,” Quentin says patiently when 23 initially does not seem at all inclined to travel him back to New York. “So, yes, I am asking you for a favor, but it gets you something you want, so it’s a win-win. Come on.” 

“Isn’t your boy’s birthday Halloween?” 23 asks with a put-upon sigh. 

“Sure, but I want to get a head start,” Quentin lies, surprisingly easily. “It’s the first time we’ve been together for his birthday, and my luck, if I wait, something will come up and I can’t get there at all, so I want to be early. I’m sure you get that.”

23 doesn’t quite have the very hidden soft spots that their original Penny occasionally showed - or, if he does, Quentin has never seen them because this Penny’s dislike of him is still very genuine, rather than a force of mutual habit - but the one thing Quentin was banking on is that 23 would want the same thing Quentin’s claiming, if it were for Julia’s birthday. And he gambled smart, because with another sigh, 23 offers his hand and the next thing Quentin knows, they’re in the darkened living room of the penthouse at - oh, midnight. Didn’t plan that one. 

He checks the bottom left cabinet in the kitchen - Eliot never goes in there - and sure enough, there’s the bakery box he asked Kady to get for him. She’d owed him one after that crystal he’d mended for her, and when he’d asked her to pick up the half-dozen cupcakes today, three red velvet and three funfetti and keep them under a preservation spell, she’d called him “weird but easier than Baba Yaga bullshit.”

Quentin changes in the bathroom, into the spare pajamas he’d packed for the trip, and manages to tiptoe into his and Eliot’s room, slip into bed, without waking Eliot up. Eliot sleeps more heavily than he used to - Quentin would never have gotten away with this in Fillory. But here, it works, so he curls in next to Eliot, casting a wake-up spell that unlike an alarm will only wake him, and goes to sleep. 

When he blinks awake to morning sunlight slanting through the window, Quentin turns his head to find Eliot sprawled on his back next to him, still deeply asleep. Good. Exactly as Quentin planned. He sits up, carefully pushing the blankets down to the foot of the bed and then crawling between Eliot’s legs. 

It’s fair to say, this little scheme is something of a gift for both of them. Quentin happens to know this is one of Eliot’s favorite ways to wake up, and as for him… He loves going down on people, historically it hasn’t mattered what equipment his bedmate had, so to speak, he just likes using his mouth. But this, oh so carefully tugging Eliot’s sleep pants and underwear down, freezing whenever he thinks Eliot might wake up? That always ups the tension, and… 

On this particular morning, Eliot’s cock is still soft, and that’s one of Quentin’s favorite things. He loves how easily he can take Eliot in his mouth like this, loves feeling Eliot’s cock fill even as he wraps his lips around him. 

“Mm… Q?” Long fingers slide into Quentin’s hair, curl loosely there. Quentin hums happily, looking up through his lashes to find Eliot looking down at him, eyes hazy with sleep and desire. God, that’s one of the best looks. 

Now that Eliot’s awake, Quentin slides his hands up Eliot’s thighs, pulling off briefly to lick along the length of Eliot’s cock, one hand teasing his balls as he swallows Eliot down again. 

“Fucking - when did you even - just like that, baby, yeah,” Eliot breathes, fingers tightening in Quentin’s hair. And, damn him, that always turns the tables, Quentin’s moans muffled but no less obvious when Eliot starts pulling his hair. But he knows how to get his back, breathing carefully through his nose as he pushes up, taking Eliot deeper till his lips are wrapped round the base of him. 

It’s not long after that, Eliot spilling down his throat and his cock deep enough that Quentin barely needs to swallow, mostly just has to keep his throat relaxed. It’s just hard enough to breathe that he’s left a little pleasantly buzzed as he pulls off with one last teasing lick to lay his head on Eliot’s thigh. “Mm. Happy birthday,” he says with a pleased little smile, looking up at Eliot. 

“You - mischievous little shit, you planned that all along when you said you wouldn’t be back in time yesterday, didn’t you?” 

“Maybe.” Quentin sits up, then moves so he can lay next to Eliot again. “I didn’t upset you too badly, did I? There’s cupcakes too, if I need to grovel some more, darling.” 

“Hmm.” Eliot strokes a hand down Quentin’s cheek. “Are you my gift?” 

“I mean. I bought cupcakes. Or, I made a trade with Kady to get the cupcakes, same deal. And there’s a gift in my bag. But, you know. That was kind of the idea?”

“Well…” Eliot pushes Quentin onto his back, pinning him to the mattress and kissing him. “Then I think you don’t need to grovel, but I think I do get to do whatever I want with you. Happy birthday to me.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I finally got to write Q giving a blowjob! (Seriously, the boy is so orally fixated, and it took this long?)
> 
> Come chat with me at eidetictelekinetic.tumblr.com or @Fae_Boleyn on Twitter.


End file.
